Brand: Arcana
Scent Description: A delicate blend of French vanilla creme, white amber, sugared vanilla beans, caramel, and the smallest dab of opium.
A collection of indie perfume reviews
Brand: Arcana
Scent Description: A delicate blend of French vanilla creme, white amber, sugared vanilla beans, caramel, and the smallest dab of opium.
Very sweet vanilla dripping in caramel. This is quite sexy for such a sweet gourmand, and I agree with the reviewer who said this is almost wet smelling (perhaps alluding to the name). This fragrance teeters on the edge of vanilla frosting overload, but the touch of opium reels it in. I owned this and enjoyed it, but for some reason, rarely felt compelled to reach for it. I guess I prefer alcohol based perfumes (will Arcana ever release EDPs?).
I’m honestly glad I got this. I can see this being a beautiful layering scent. When I open the bottle, it smells like the opening of ‘holy terror’ or ‘devilish’ maybe the buttercream? After that phase settles, and isn’t wet anymore it honestly reminds me of biting into one of those square caramels.. the way it tastes is the way it smells to me. That warmth from the caramel, and a tiniest hint of spice. It’s very good, i don’t know if I’d keep re – purchasing cause I’m one of the odd ones who isn’t particularly fond of HT.
It’s a very sweet butterscotch vanilla scent. I like this but I apply sparingly. It’s a very straightforward scent.
Pretty average, 6/10. Sort of earthy, stale caramel cookies
I’m not feeling the hype here, it’s not bad, it’s all vanilla and a bit of caramel and white amber, some opium… all very white and overly vanilla. I do like vanilla a lot but this is too much…it doesn’t smell bad, but I have a lot of other more interesting scents with vanilla.
Creamy butterscotch, caramel, vanilla cream.. almost wet? cool and very sweet but mature. Extremely pretty but makes you hungry.
A really delicious creamy vanilla with a tinge of almond. Somehow manages to be youthful but still an adult vanilla that isn’t sickeningly sweet. Sits close to the skin.
It’s easily my favorite vanilla perfume of all time.
Wet and in the bottle I get a faceful of butterscotch, which is fine by me because I absolutely love eating, and making (it’s like alchemy), butterscotch. It’s mouthnumbingly sweet however which is a little out of my comfort zone, I like sweet but not in your face gourmand. Over time the caramel calms down a bit and the amber peeks through, though the opium gives it an almost smoky sweetness but something in the amber lends an almost soapy quality. The dry down is powdery sweet. It puts me in mind of NAVA’s Anubis Amber, which on me is reminiscent of a slightly soapy Terry’s Chocolate Orange. I might try layering my other amber frags with this one to tone down the sweetness, I suspect it might become much more wearable .
Rich caramel vanilla and the slightest hint of opium
I really liked it at first and it’s very accessible, but I think it’s too overpowering to me. It’s barely subtle, it’s very much IN YOUR FACE gourmand. It’s a caramel-vanilla, whereas the vanilla is the French/dry kind, with a hint of opium. Turns out French vanilla is not my favourite vanilla, and the opium gives it a bite that I don’t necessarily enjoy. It’s a solid scent, but not for me. Throw is great, though: my mother who was at the other side of the room sniffed and asked “hm, what smells so good in here?”.
Delicious sweet decadent vanilla! The caramel and opium add a bit of depth and the amber isn’t very noticeable to me. Great to layer.